KLEM News PM Update March 8, 2011

The Iowa State Patrol reports 26-year-old Christopher Divis of Sioux City was driving northwest of Smithland on "Old Highway 141" and failed to negotiate a right hand curve.

The pickup truck Divis was driving went into the ditch, hit an embankment and rolled. Divis was ejected. He was taken to Mercy Medical Center in Sioux City by Mercy Air Care.

Divis died. The accident was reported about 2:30 Monday morning.

(Holstein) A traffic crash in northwest Iowa Monday morning claimed two lives and left one person injured. The crash happened just before 8 a.m., two miles west of Holstein on Highway 20 in Ida (EYE-duh) County. The Iowa State Patrol reports 55-year-old Lori Sokolowski of Holstein lost control of the car she driving and hit an oncoming pickup. Sokolowski and a passenger, 28-year-old Maria Pencook of Albert City, were both pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the pickup, 48-year-old Deron Schmidt of Battle Creek, was transported by ambulance to a hospital in Ida Grove. (Radio Iowa)

The Clay County Sheriff's office reports 25-year-old Therese Marie Reinholdt of Spencer was driving a van across a bridge when she lost control last Friday. Information about the accident was released Monday afternoon.

According to the sheriff's report, Reinholdt over corrected and lost control which caused the pizza delivery van to go into the ditch and the river.

Reinholdt was able to get out of the van through the passenger's side window and onto the hood. She then jumped toward the river bank before the vehicle was fully submerged.

Spencer Fire and Rescue was able to get her from the side of the river. She was treated at the Spencer hospital for minor injuries and being exposed to the river water and cold weather.

(Photo of vehicle recovery courtesy Clay County Sheriff's Office)

NORFOLK, Neb. (AP) A new award recognizing contributions to comedy has been named in honor of the late Johnny Carson.

The new Johnny Carson Award announced Monday will be presented April 10 during a new award show airing on Comedy Central and several other cable networks.

The award will recognize an individual who made an extraordinary contribution to comedy over the course of their career.

Carson, the longtime TV talk-show host of ``The Tonight Show,'' was born in Corning, Iowa, in 1925. He moved with his family to Norfolk when he was 8 and graduated from Norfolk High School. A comedy festival is held there each year in his honor.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers expects runoff into the Missouri River system this year will be 120 percent of normal.

Runoff last year was 156 percent of normal.

The corps says the six reservoirs have room to store runoff from the spring snowmelt.

It says an extended forecast of above-normal precipitation and below-normal temperatures in the Northern Rockies and Northern Plains through March could mean a fast melt once temperatures rise. That could lead to flooding on tributary rivers in Wyoming, Montana and the Dakotas.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

of a little girl killed by two Rottweilers says she doesn't know how the dogs got out of their fenced, locked kennel in the backyard of her home in Hopkinton

Rhonda Marty said Monday that her 3-year-old daughter, Vanessa Husmann, was never left alone with the dogs. But Marty says the dogs got out somehow on Saturday, perhaps by digging under the fence.

The dogs have been euthanized.

An 18-year-old man told The Des Moines Register that he tried to rescue Vanessa but had to flee.

Blake Muller says he was at his mother's house nearby when saw Vanessa on a porch, under the dogs.

He says he ran over, kicked one dog and struck the other. They turned on Muller, so he fled and called 911.

Police ask for state help in Iowa hate crime case

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) An Iowa police chief says she has asked the state for assistance investigating allegations that an Arab-American filmmaker was beaten and called racial epithets after walking into a house party early Sunday.

Fairfield Police Chief Julie Harvey said Tuesday she has requested the state Division of Criminal Investigation's help with the case involving Usama Alshaibi.

Alshaibi says he wandered into a house party after a night drinking with a friend, and was beaten by a group of four men after he told them his first name. He is making a film about racism against Arabs in the U.S. after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Harvey said that, ``because of the seriousness of the allegation, we want to make sure a thorough investigation is done.''

A DCI spokeswoman had no immediate comment.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) A Des Moines man faces a tougher charge for the death of a woman who was fatally injured when his vehicle crashed through her home.

The Des Moines Register says 50-year-old Loren Bishop had been charged with vehicular homicide by reckless driving, a felony that carries a maximum prison term of 10 years. Court documents say Bishop now has been charged with vehicular homicide while under the influence of a controlled substance or drug. That carries a maximum term of 25 years.

Police say Bishop lost control of his vehicle on Jan. 22 and drive into the home of 73-year-old Mary Miller. She died later at a hospital. Bishop wasn't injured.

Bishop has pleaded not guilty. Polk County prosecutors said at his arraignment Monday that Bishop used prescription drugs inappropriately.

Officials say the van was found in 12 feet of water on Saturday.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) The Linn County Civil Service Commission has upheld the firing of a Linn County deputy who had been driving drunk.

The 30-year-old Klima pleaded guilty to drunken driving after his arrest in Decorah.

Klima had been a deputy for three years. The year's suspension of his driver's license would have put Klima in violation of the sheriff's department policy.

The Gazette of Cedar Rapids says Klima and his attorney appealed to the commission that a suspension may have been warranted instead of a dismissal.

DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) Trial for a Dubuque woman charged in the death of her toddler daughter has been postponed until May 23.

Tamelia Harris is charged with first-degree murder in the death of her 20-month-old daughter Cecilia. Trial was set for April 11 in Dubuque County but Harris has requested it be moved from the county.

The Telegraph Herald is reporting that a hearing on the request is set for April 15.

The 33-year-old Harris has been in jail since July when police began looking for the child. She was initially arrested on a charge of child neglect. Police later found the remains of a small child in Harris' backyard.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) The Iowa Court of Appeals has resurrected a lawsuit by a former prison worker who says he was forced out of his job in 2004 for reporting suspicions about a supervisor.

On Monday, the court reversed a decision by a district judge who had dismissed the lawsuit filed by Joseph Tekippe. The court says the lawsuit raised several issues that merited consideration by the district court.

Tekippe's lawsuit says he suspected a supervisor was stealing cigarettes from the Luster Heights prison camp commissary. An investigation and state audit did not prove the theft occurred.

Tekippe says prison officials turned on him in retaliation.

A spokesman for the Iowa attorney general told The Des Moines Register there's been no decision on whether to appeal to the Iowa Supreme Court.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) Cedar Rapids officials are expected to accept $9 million in federal disaster funds to help build a new flood-protection wall at the Quaker Oats plant near downtown.

The Gazette in Cedar Rapids says Monday that the City Council is to accept the previously announced funds this week. The money will help build a flood wall that to the standards required by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Quaker has begun the work, but its plans had been to build a wall that provides less protection that called for the in the corps' plan or the city's more-comprehensive plan.

An agreement with the city and the corps is allowing the city use federal funds to build the 2,500-foot-long wall at Quaker. The company is paying some of the cost.